
Class. 
Book_ 



igM°_ 



0OPHRIGHT DEPOSm 



Making the Old 
Sunday School New 



BY 

ERNEST ALBERT MILLER 




THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN 
NEW YORK .'. CINCINNATI 



.M5 



Copyright, 1917, by 
ERNEST ALBERT MILLER 



4 

AUG 24 1917 



©GI.A470761 



CONTENTS 

Page 

I. The Old Sunday School and 

the New 5 

II. The Enlarged Sunday School 

Objective 11 

III. Making a Statistical Enroll- 

ment of the School 17 

IV. Classifying and Grouping the 

Pupils 22 

V. Remodeling and Equipping the 

Building 28 

VI. Installing and Carrying on 

the Graded Lessons 33 

VII. Officering the New School. . . 39 

VIII. Training the Teachers 48 

IX. Sunday School Workers' Night 53 

X. The Sunday School Workers' 

Library 58 

XI. Reorganizing the Apult De- 
partment 63 

XII. Emphasizing Expressional 

Lesson Work 70 

XIII. Securing Decisions for Christ 76 

XIV. Making the Sunday School the 

Church School 81 

XV. Supplementing the Sunday In- 
struction 93 



THE OLD SUNDAY SCHOOL 
AND THE NEW 

All adults to-day who attended Sun- 
day school when they were children, 
and still continue, are aware of a great 
change in Sunday school conceptions 
and convictions. Then a Sunday school 
was supposed to be almost entirely out- 
side the realm of educational law : some 
miraculous power was supposed to be 
present and active because it was God's 
school; the very fact that God's Word 
was studied, and songs of Zion sung, 
and fervent prayers offered, was con- 
sidered sufficient guarantee against fail- 
ure: its high purpose would justify and 
sanctify any means whatsoever. But in 
later years attention has been turned to 
the product and the results of Sunday 



6 MAKING THE OLD 

school work: neither quantitatively nor 
qualitatively have these been gratifying. 
From our schools more pupils have 
gone unchristianized, severing all 
church connections, than have remained 
in the church as witnesses for Christ. 
And of those who have affiliated with 
the church many have been indifferent 
Christians; few trained and competent 
Christian workers. 

The implication here is not that 
former Sunday schools have nothing to 
their credit. The Christian world to- 
day would be infinitely poorer than it is 
had there been no Sunday schools in 
past generations. The Sunday school 
has always been the chief feeder of the 
Church. Had there been no old Sun- 
day school there would be no new. Sun- 
day school life and progress represents 
a great evolution, the beginning and 
earlier stages essential to any present- 
day efficiency. But the claims here are 
that the Sunday school has improved 
very slowly, that there has been too 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 7 

much complacency amongst Sunday 
school workers in the past, that educa- 
tional laws have been too much disre- 
garded, that the Christian results might 
have been greater with more intelligent 
organization and methods, that the time 
has come for the Sunday school to 
awaken to the best in educational 
science and attempt great things for 
God. 

Every clear-headed student of Sun- 
day school history and Sunday school 
life to-day has arrived at the conclusion 
that the Sunday school must conform to 
the laws of teaching if it is to work out 
its purpose. Educational organization 
and methods are as essential for evan- 
gelistic results as for purely educational 
results. The laws of the mind are God's 
laws and cannot be broken without loss : 
when we are engaged in God's business 
most specifically, as in Sunday school, 
there is the greatest need of closest con- 
formity to his laws. 

The state has been vastly more pro- 



8 MAKING THE OLD 

gressive in the science and art of educa- 
tion than has the church. Indeed, the 
new Sunday school in many ways is an 
imitation of the public school. Depart- 
ment organization, Graded Lessons, 
trained teachers — these at least have 
been suggested by public school ex- 
ample. It is but fair to say that now, 
since religious educators have adopted 
the educational-evangelistic platform, 
Sunday schools are even outstripping 
the state schools in some respects, most 
notably in expressional work. 

The determining principle in all edu- 
cational advancement, and the principle 
that is operating with telling effect in 
the Sunday school world to-day, is that 
of the centrality of the child. Schools 
are on account of and for the sake of the 
children. Their interests should sug- 
gest and control all school management 
and all methods of instruction. The 
new Sunday school is fast superseding 
the old because it recognizes this prin- 
ciple of the primacy of the pupils. Old 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 9 

Sunday schools crowned variously the 
superintendent, the teacher, or the Bible 
lesson : new Sunday schools are ordered 
for the children, their successively un- 
folding interests and fullest Christian 
development dictating organization, 
plans, and methods. To make every 
pupil a serviceable Christian is the aim 
of the new Sunday school. 

While many Sundav school leaders 
are awake to a changed Sunday school 
viewpoint, and believe thoroughly in 
the new Sunday school, great numbers 
of these are helpless to make the change. 
To break up an old system and institute 
a new, when eternal destinies are at 
stake, is not a task to be undertaken 
carelessly by untrained hands. That 
many superintendents and pastors are 
eager to come to the front with their 
schools I have no doubt: but I am just 
as sure that these same leaders are con- 
scientious enough to remain as they are 
rather than to take a leap in the dark. 
To help all progressive-thinking but 



10 MAKING THE OLD 

untrained and fearful Sunday school 
folk this book is written. Many books 
have been written on the new Sunday 
school, but, so far as I know, none defi- 
nitely on the work of transforming an 
old school into a new — where to begin 
and how to proceed. The setting forth 
of that process is the purpose of this 
little book. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 11 



II 

THE ENLARGED SUNDAY 
SCHOOL OBJECTIVE 

The plowman sets his stakes before 
striking out a new land. The Sunday- 
school man, resolved on a newer and a 
better school, must definitely determine 
the ultimate goal before he tears up any 
ground. The final objective of Sunday 
school work is the only adequate touch- 
stone of all methods, all organization, 
and all goals by the way. The first 
move for any earnest Sunday school 
leader, one who is truly conscious of 
great Sunday school changes all about 
him, one who is honestly concerned to 
bring his school up to the highest point 
of modern efficiency, is not to move at 
all ; it is, rather, to sit quietly down and 
contemplate ends, especially the highest 
and ultimate ends. Sunday school im- 



12 MAKING THE OLD 

provement does not begin with a 
method, but with an ideal. Set your 
stake and then strike out. 

One of the troubles with the old Sun- 
day school was that those who managed 
it had no clearly defined objective. 
They were well-meaning men, but they 
did not look far enough into the future ; 
they were content with close-up aims. 
If you had asked them what they were 
driving at, they would have replied that 
their purpose was a spiritual one, that 
the salvation of the boys and girls was 
their aim. These are vague expressions, 
and their vagueness is indicative of the 
dimness of the ideal of many former 
Sunday school workers. It may be that 
to some the planting of the Bible in the 
hearts and minds of the pupils was the 
chief function of the Sunday school. 
But one does not have to think long 
before concluding that Bible knowledge 
is just a method, a means, or at best, a 
lesser aim. What is the final justifica- 
tion of this school on Sunday? 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 13 

No fair-minded Christian will deny 
that the Sunday school is a spiritual in- 
stitution, that the inspired Word of 
God is the main text for study. The 
new Sunday school is at one with the old 
in these matters. But the new Sunday 
school spirit requires a clear distinction 
of means from ends, of half-way objec- 
tives from the ultimate. The final ob- 
jective of the Sunday school to-day 
must stand out in clear light: the air 
must be cleared of all fog, the Sunday 
school machine must be sharply focused, 
the bull's eye must be held in steady 
vision while plans and methods are be- 
ing settled upon. What is the objective 
worthy of a twentieth-century institu- 
tion building character for God? A 
controlling sense of Christian citizen- 
ship (with the supreme emphasis on 
Christian) in the world — to develop this 
in the heart of every pupil is the true 
aim of Sunday school endeavor. This 
sense cannot be fully developed in a 
year, and does not take possession of the 



14 MAKING THE OLD 

soul in its fullness before maturity. 
But if it is ever going to grip the life of 
the man, it must be worked into the un- 
folding life of the boy. It is impossible 
to make a genuine altruist out of a man: 
Tie must be grown through the forma- 
tive years. 

The ideal of world-Christian citizen- 
ship does not detract from the individ- 
ual Christian life, nor from the sense of 
community Christian citizenship. The 
earlier Sunday school objective of the 
regenerated individual life was good as 
far as it went, but it did not go far 
enough. The service ideal is more 
Christlike than the self ideal. There is 
no denying that one must have Christ in 
his heart before he can be a true servant 
of men, but it is just as true that Christ 
secures his fullest entrance into the life 
through the avenue of service, and that 
the self -centered Christian life is far 
from an ideal life. The ideals of a sat- 
isfactory individual Christian life, a 
community Christian citizenship sense, 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 15 

and a world Christian citizenship feel- 
ing, develop together, and strongly re- 
ciprocate one another. The better for- 
eign missionary one is, the better home 
missionary and the better Christian. 

But Christian citizenship in the world 
is the finest and truest objective in reli- 
gious education. If we can see young 
men and women going out from our 
Sunday schools to their chosen fields of 
labor imbued with the idea that this is 
God's world, that God loves every in- 
habitant of the globe, that every man is 
a brother, that he himself dare not rest 
content unless he is doing his best to 
give every man as fair a chance as he 
has, then we can feel that as religious 
educators we have not labored in vain. 
When that day comes there will be a no 
less amount of vital personal experi- 
ence, no unreadiness to help the man 
next door; on the contrary, the world 
ideal will sharpen the community re- 
sponsibility and make Christ very real 
to the individual heart. 



16 MAKING THE OLD 

Sunday school leaders should get the 
world in the focus of their thought. 
Every child in every Sunday school 
should be set in growing relation to that 
great ideal. All religious educational 
principles, all methods of instruction 
and organization, should be measured 
and justified by their power to conduce 
Christian fraternity to all humanity. 






SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 17 



III 

MAKING A STATISTICAL 

ENROLLMENT OF THE 

SCHOOL 

A complete and accurate enrollment 
of the pupils stands out as one of the 
improvements of the new Sunday school 
over the old. There was a time when 
the pupil's name on a class book was all 
the record the school had of that pupil. 
At most the new pupil was asked, 
"What is your name?" "Where do you 
live?" and perhaps, "How old are you?" 
The public school has never fared forth 
with any pupil on such meager informa- 
tion, nor should the Sunday school at- 
tempt to do so. By its general and 
vague methods the Sunday school has 
lost the individual in the mass : one boy 
is the same as another, and so long as he 



18 MAKING THE OLD 

adds one and fills a place why inquire 
further? Numbers, rallies, spectacles — 
these have been the centers of interest 
and the measures of success. The insti- 
tutional end has received the emphasis : 
we are just learning to attend to the 
personal end of Sunday school life. It 
is fast becoming a maxim that the only 
way to help boys and girls is to under- 
stand them, No two pupils are alike in 
inheritance, training, or environment. 
Just what the facts in the life of any 
pupil are must be known by the earn- 
est Sunday school and the real teacher. 
The boys and girls must be individual- 
ized. The best time for securing the 
life-facts of any pupil is that when he 
enters the school. At the very least the 
information required of each pupil 
should include the following points: 
name, address, age, public school stand- 
ing or educational attainment, bap- 
tized or no, church member or no, 
previous Sunday school experience, eye- 
sight and hearing, special talents, par- 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 19 

ents' names and church relationships, 
father's occupation. According to 
these facts the pupil should be classi- 
fied and dealt with. The teacher should 
be in possession of these facts. The 
statistical enrollment cards should be 
placed on file, alphabetically indexed, 
and accessible to all workers concerned 
at any time, and above all to the pastor 
of the church. 

As a pupil is promoted or experiences 
other changes affecting his religious de- 
velopment, careful account should be 
kept on his statistical card. 

If a school has no such statistical en- 
rollment of its present membership, 
such data should be secured by the 
teachers from their pupils on a Sunday 
set for that purpose. Blanks and per- 
manent cards should be prepared by 
each school. A special officer, enroll- 
ment secretary or registrar, should be 
elected to take care of the enrollment 
file, keeping it up to date and furnish- 
ing information on any pupil at any 



20 MAKING THE OLD 

time to anyone desiring same. The en- 
rollment secretary will be able to give 
the total enrollment of the school at any 
time. If any pupils move away or drop 
out of Sunday school, such facts should 
be noted on the enrollment cards and 
those cards removed to a separate file. 
The religious history of any pupil, his 
promotions and progress, could be 
written up at any time from his card. 

The chief benefit from such a thor- 
oughgoing survey and record will be- 
come apparent in the crises of the lives 
of the pupils. One arrives at the time 
of decision and requires very careful 
direction and advice: the special expe- 
riences of that life will determine the 
nature of the counsel and prevent tragic 
blunders. A testimonial is requested by 
some person or firm to whom applica- 
tion has been made for employment: 
such can be intelligently given from the 
record. A pupil has gone wrong, and 
you may be led to an understanding of 
the case, and to sympathy and to accep- 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 21 

table and genuine helpfulness because 
you can retrace the life-channel from 
the experience enrollment card. And in 
very many ways a careful statistical en- 
rollment individualizes the pupils of a 
school and makes adaptable treatment 
possible. 



22 MAKING THE OLD 



IV 

CLASSIFYING AND GROUP- 
ING THE PUPILS 

As far as it is possible each class in 
the Sunday school should be a unit. 
The labor of discipline is reduced to a 
minimum when the pupils are divided 
into homogeneous groups. Troubles 
come in when you ask one teacher to 
manage pupils who are far apart in in- 
terests and development. The hap- 
hazard method of grouping Sunday 
school pupils in the past has led to a deal 
of difficulty, discouraged many a prom- 
ising teacher, and given pupils an alto- 
gether erroneous conception of a Sun- 
day school. New pupils have been al- 
lowed to go with their chums or to a 
class where they know somebody; this 
class has contained pupils six years 
apart in age and divided by as many 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 23 

school grades, regardless of the laws of 
grading. Such pupils do not live in the 
same world, and no teacher can hope to 
minister to all the members of such a 
dissimilar group. 

To-day the age of the pupil may 
have to be the general basis of classifi- 
cation in most Sunday schools, but as 
soon as the time comes when the Sunday 
school is regarded as a real school, sub- 
ject to educational laws, the criterion of 
classification may be the degree of men- 
tal and spiritual development. As it is 
now the public school grade may be 
taken as one of the factors, along with 
age, for determining the Sunday school 
grade. Right here the value of the sta- 
tistical enrollment will be seen ; the first 
step in the reorganization and reclassi- 
fication of the pupils of any school must 
be the securing of the facts which are to 
form the basis of grading. This is one 
of the purposes of the school survey. 

Many schools will need to be almost 
completely broken up and reconstructed 



24 MAKING THE OLD 

before any series of Graded Lessons can 
be introduced and successfully oper- 
ated. It will be like organizing a new 
school. Here are the pupils of all sorts 
and sizes: classify them according to 
educational laws, irrespective of how 
they have been previously grouped, and 
you will have placed the school on a solid 
foundation for educational and evangel- 
istic efficiency. 

These rules are particularly applica- 
ble in the Elementary Division of the 
school, up to and including the Junior 
Department. In the Intermediate and 
Senior Departments of the school some 
regard must be had for voluntary and 
natural groupings: this is the natural 
time for the gang and the club, as well 
as for self -management, and nothing- 
should be imposed arbitrarily upon the 
pupils. But where no strong natural 
grouping already obtains the laws of 
age and development should be thor- 
oughly enforced in arranging the pupils 
in classes. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 25 

Generally speaking, classes are too 
large in Sunday school. Individual 
work is the ideal way in religious educa- 
tion: seeing that this is impossible, be- 
cause of the dearth of teachers, it should 
be approached as nearly as possible. If 
a class is to be a unit, the pupils as 
nearly alike as possible, in instincts and 
interests, it must necessarily be small. 
Barring the circle of the Beginners' De- 
partment and the lecture class of the 
Adult Department, no class should ex- 
ceed ten in number, and in the Primary 
and Junior Departments six should be 
the maximum number in any class. 

For worship purposes the Sunday 
school groups may safely be larger than 
for study purposes. The community of 
feeling is broader than the community 
of thought. And yet grave mistakes 
are still being made by endeavoring to 
span too great a length of life in the 
Sunday school worship services (the 
so-called "opening exercises") . Songs, 
prayers, and responses must be intelli- 



26 MAKING THE OLD 

gible if they are to be interesting; they 
must be interesting if they are to be 
helpful. The massed school may be a 
stirring sight to an onlooker, but it is a 
positive waste of time and a spiritual 
hindrance to those on the inside, espe- 
cially to the most important members of 
the school, namely, those of the Elemen- 
tary Division. 

In larger schools there should be as 
many assemblies for worship as there 
are standard departments: Beginners' 
(four and five years), Primary (six, 
seven and eight), Junior (nine, ten and 
eleven), Intermediate (twelve, thirteen 
and fourteen), Senior (fifteen, sixteen 
and seventeen) , Young People's (eight- 
een to twenty-four), Adult (twenty- 
five and on). In rural schools, no 
matter how small, the laws of the un- 
folding life demand four worship 
groups, namely, Beginners, Primary, 
Junior, and Senior (including all pupils 
above twelve) . If these groups have to 
be reduced to three, place the Beginners 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 27 

and the Primary children together. For 
drill purposes the Junior children 
should worship by themselves. 

Reclassifying and redepartmentaliz- 
ing the pupils of a Sunday school is an 
important business and should have the 
most careful attention of the officers of 
the school. Each pupil must be con- 
sidered by himself according to his en- 
rollment data and classified according 
to the laws of his own life. Before the 
changes are actually made in school the 
new arrangement should be platted on 
paper or on a blackboard, with every- 
thing in readiness; all of the shifting 
should be done on a set day. Objec- 
tions must be steadily overruled in the 
interests of future growth and effi- 
ciency. 



28 MAKING THE OLD 



REMODELING AND EQUIP- 
PING THE BUILDING 

In very many of the church buildings 
at the present time it is wholly impos- 
sible to do departmental Sunday school 
work. There is the one-room church in 
the country and the Akron plan Sunday 
school in the towns and cities, neither of 
which as now ordered can be used for 
modern Sunday school work. 

For the one-room building rolling 
partitions, curtains, or screens might be 
the best way out. None of these would 
necessarily interfere with the preaching 
facilities of the room : rolling partitions 
can be opened; curtains can be pushed 
back or with the poles and wires easily 
removed; screens can be carried aside. 
None of these partitions would be 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 29 

sound-proof, but all would be sight- 
proof, and the chief detraction from 
study for boys and girls is what they 
see rather than what they hear. If such 
simple appliances as the above-men- 
tioned cannot be used for department 
divisions, they can most certainly be 
used for the separation of classes; and 
this is of the greatest value. Recently I 
visited a one-room church in the country 
which had been fitted out with curtains, 
poles, and wires in order that better 
class work might be done, and when 
Sunday school was over and preaching 
time came, in two minutes curtains, 
poles, and wires were taken down by 
monitors and removed to a storeroom. 
They told me that the entire cost of the 
improvement, after the ladies had done 
their work on the curtains, was but eigh- 
teen dollars. 

The Akron plan of building is wholly 
unsuited for Graded Lesson work, and, 
indeed, has very little to recommend it 
for the Uniform system if educational 



30 MAKING THE OLD 

efficiency is taken into account. What 
to do with an Akron plan building is a 
problem; but I would suggest the re- 
moval of all of the partitions until an 
open square or rectangular room is left, 
and then the dividing of that room with 
solid sound-proof partitions for depart- 
ment work, and sliding partitions for 
class work. Any good public school 
building will serve as a pattern for the 
new departmental arrangement. Usu- 
ally the building can be made two-story 
and a cross partition run above and be- 
low, thus making four schoolrooms. 

Very often a church would do wisely 
to build a schoolroom at the rear or by 
the side of the church building. On spe- 
cial days, such as Rally Day or Christ- 
mas, when there are special reasons for 
massing the members of the school, the 
church auditorium can be used for this 
purpose. The church auditorium can 
be used for adult worship and study 
purposes at all times. 

Above all when new church buildings 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 31 

are being constructed great care should 
be taken so that the religious educa- 
tional facilities will be all they ought to 
be. An architect who understands this 
phase of the work should be secured. 
The counsel of the Sunday school spe- 
cialists should be sought. It makes one 
heartsick to view the great number of 
traditional church buildings that are 
going up to-day without proper thought 
having been given to the natural spirit- 
ual interests of the children. A 
preacher wholly obsessed with the pul- 
pit ideal, a building committee the mem- 
bers of which think only of the grown- 
ups and of architectural beauty, and a 
traditional ecclesiastical architect — one 
or all are to blame for the waste and the 
shortsightedness . 

Just as public school architecture has 
pointed us many lessons, so has the sen- 
sible equipment of public schools opened 
our eyes. The Beginners' Department 
should be as homelike as possible, just 
as are the public kindergartens, with 



32 MAKING THE OLD 

small chairs, little work-tables, rug on 
the floor, burlap dado, adapted pictures 
of the best subjects and quality, etc. 
All rooms should be bright and with 
good ventilation. In all departments 
such educational accessories as black- 
boards, tables, or desks, maps, cabinets, 
etc., should be found and intelligently 
used. It is scarcely necessary to state 
that the equipment should be graded, 
determined by the pupils' interests and 
by the curriculum of study. Handwork 
cannot be left out of Sunday school to- 
day if efficiency is the watchword. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 33 



VI 

INSTALLING AND CARRYING 
ON THE GRADED LESSONS 

Graded Lessons do not need to be 
argued to-day as they did a few years 
ago : their success, where they have been 
given a fair trial, is sufficient justifica- 
tion for their use. No objector can 
stand before living results ; and in every 
Sunday school where Graded Lessons, 
carefully installed and conscientiously 
worked, have displaced the old Uniform 
system more pupils have intelligently 
decided for Christ in a given time than 
ever before: the Bible material has be- 
come interesting, even popular, to all 
grades of children, and real Bible schol- 
ars are being trained in our schools. 

Everything depends upon the manner 
of installation and use. Nothing of real 



34 MAKING THE OLD 

value can hope to win out when the way 
is blocked by ignorance or prejudice. 
The Graded Lessons have been thrown 
out from a few schools and been an in- 
different success in others, because they 
were expected to make their own way. 
They have been highly recommended by 
some speaker or writer, and anxious 
superintendents or ambitious pastors 
have impulsively thrust the new lessons 
upon their schools, when they them- 
selves, much less the startled teachers, 
have understood nothing of the me- 
chanics or the genius of a graded system 
of instruction. 

Before Graded Lessons are substi- 
tuted for Uniform Lessons they should 
be thoroughly examined and approved 
by all teachers and officers concerned. 
A class, made up of these teachers and 
officers, should be organized weeks or 
even months before the change is made. 
This would be a teacher-training class, 
meeting once a week, under the guid- 
ance of the pastor, or some one who has 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 35 

made a thorough study of the new sys- 
tem, for the purpose of mastering the 
new lesson plan. The underlying prin- 
ciples of the system, the pupils and 
teachers' textbooks, the aims of the en- 
tire series and of the several years, the 
matters of equipment, handwork, and 
homework, all should be thoroughly dis- 
cussed in this class. Needless to say, the 
leader must be master of the curriculum 
and an enthusiast for Graded Lessons. 
The Graded Lesson books should be in 
the hands of the teachers well in ad- 
vance of the time when the new lessons 
are to be introduced and the "Fore- 
words" should be carefully read. 

October the first is the beginning of 
the Sunday school year and the new les- 
sons should be introduced at that time. 
All the preparation should lead up to 
that date. One of the most important 
elements of preparation is the grading 
or classifying of the pupils. Some 
schools have failed at this point. The 
paramount reason for Graded Lessons 



36 MAKING THE OLD 

is graded life, and unless the pupils are 
carefully grouped according to their 
periods of development, the lessons can- 
not be fitted to the pupils. See Chapter 
IV, "Classifying and Grouping the 
Pupils." 

The teachers would do well to visit 
the parents of their pupils, acquainting 
them with the new lesson plans, assur- 
ing them of the purpose to do a higher 
grade of Sunday school work, and so- 
liciting their cooperation for homework. 
If all of these directions are followed, 
the Graded Lessons are sure to win 
favor from the pupils on the very first 
Sunday, and much depends on this. 
"Well begun" is one of the great secrets 
of success for the Graded Lessons. If 
the way is carefully prepared, I have 
found no reason for not introducing at 
once the Graded Lesons throughout all 
grades, at any rate to the first-year 
Senior. If thoroughgoing preparation 
cannot be made, it is wise to introduce 
the Lessons gradually, say to the end of 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 37 

the Junior Grades, and then let them 
grow through the Secondary Division 
of the school. 

Every graded school should have a 
supervisor of instruction, who under- 
stands the Graded system in its entire 
sweep, and who stands ready to assist 
any perplexed teacher and to offer sug- 
gestions where such are needed. Also 
department councils should be held 
regularly for the discussion of problems 
in the department, and especially for 
curriculum problems. Interest in the 
graded work can be stimulated by hav- 
ing an Exhibit Room or an Exhibit 
Day, by which means the pupils' work 
can be displayed and the interest of par- 
ents stimulated. 

I believe that educational rules should 
govern every Graded Sunday school; 
that promotions should be on the basis 
of work done, that quarterly reports 
should be rendered the parents, that cer- 
tain tests should be given, etc. How- 
ever, let it always be borne in mind that 



38 MAKING THE OLD 

religious education is for life, and what- 
soever is without food- value for the soul 
has no legitimate place. 

Preparation, Thoroughness, and Re- 
sults, these are the three efficiency 
watchwords of the Graded Lessons. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 39 



VII 

OFFICERING THE NEW 
SCHOOL 

The new educational Sunday school 
requires all of the officers of the old 
school, and some additional. The duties 
of the officers formerly used will be 
somewhat altered: the new officers will, 
for the most part, have duties of an edu- 
cational character. An educational ad- 
ministration is just as essential as peda- 
gogical instruction in the new school. 

The chief officers of the old Sunday 
school were superintendent, secretary, 
treasurer, and librarian. 

According to the old custom the 
superintendent was the presiding of- 
ficer, the platform manager, of the 
school. It was his duty to conduct the 
so-called "opening exercises" of the 



40 MAKING THE OLD 

massed school: also he was expected to 
review the lesson from the platform for 
the entire school, and then conduct the 
"closing exercises." All this is changed 
in the new departmentalized school. 
The principals are the platform man- 
agers for all purposes for their respec- 
tive departments; the superintendent 
has no rostrum now. The superintend- 
ent is never chosen for his platform abil- 
ity but for his executive talents. He is 
the power back of the principals, the in- 
spiration of all of his associates in office, 
the guardian angel looking after the 
highest welfare of the entire school. It 
has been said that the superintendent 
who organizes his school so as to reduce 
to a minimum the necessity of his own 
actual presence is a wise leader. The 
superintendent of the new Sunday 
school stands in about the same relation 
to his school and the corps of workers 
as the superintendent of a mercantile 
house or factory stands to his business 
and to his men — always present and ac- 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 41 

quainted with every department of the 
business, though, perhaps, seldom seen. 
The old-time Sunday school secretary 
had compassed his duties when he had 
ascertained, recorded, and announced 
the attendance and the collections for 
the day. He might possibly be asked 
occasionally for the aggregate attend- 
ance of the school, and for the average 
attendance for any given time. The 
new secretary is one who takes motion 
pictures of the school. He can repro- 
duce the school on paper at any time; 
he can give comparative views of differ- 
ent departments of the school at any 
time, or comparative views of the same 
department for different times; he 
knows what views to exhibit before the 
school for purposes of stimulation, and 
what views to reserve for the Cabinet 
meeting to arrest attention on certain 
weak places in the school. Nothing is 
too small to escape the survey of this 
officer. He has a paper picture of 
every student and worker in the school; 



42 MAKING THE OLD 

his interest is not so much a human in- 
terest as it is a scientific interest ; he is a 
realist, he never guesses ; he can flash the 
school before you at a moment's notice ; 
the ideal secretary will know more about 
the school than any other person in it. 

The new secretary has his assistants 
who bring to him the material for his 
records and reports. He will need at 
least an enrollment secretary, an absen- 
tee secretary, an extension secretary, a 
birthday secretary, and secretaries for 
the several departments of the school. 
The undersecretaries must needs be as 
the general secretary, painstaking and 
thorough. 

The treasurer of the Sunday school, 
if he enters into the educational spirit 
of the school, will find his duties greatly 
broadened. He will become the finance 
director of the school. His aim will be 
to develop intelligent giving, so that 
each child will give systematically and 
purposely. The envelope system should 
be introduced into the Sunday school, 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 43 

not for the purpose of receiving more 
money, though more money will be re- 
ceived, but in order that the children 
may be trained in regular giving. It 
has been said that one generation of 
Sunday school pupils well trained in the 
grace of giving to the Lord's work will 
do away with most of the debts of 
churches and missionary boards. 

The librarian of the Sunday school, 
according to the oldtime meaning of 
that phrase, is not needed in most 
schools to-day. Public libraries have 
sprung up in almost all cities and towns, 
and it is a principle of the new Sunday 
school movement not to duplicate wel- 
fare agencies but, rather, to cooperate 
with those already existing. Further 
Sunday school funds are not usually 
sufficient to make possible a library of 
books equal to that provided by public 
funds. The flabby character of many of 
the books in the old Sunday school li- 
braries assures one that some of them 
would make better fuel for flames than 



44 MAKING THE OLD 

food for the growing mind. The libra- 
rian of the new Sunday school had 
better be given charge of a Workers' 
Library and of the Graded supplies. 
For the most efficient use of the Work- 
ers' Library see the chapter in this book 
on that subject. As custodian of the 
Graded Lesson books and other litera- 
ture supplies for the school the librarian 
should keep accurate and complete 
record of all that comes in and all that 
goes out. A ledger account should be 
kept with every department of the 
school. 

The leading new officers of the school 
will be the principals of the depart- 
ments and the educational director of 
the school. The principals will serve in 
their respective departments in the same 
manner as the old superintendent did 
for the entire school. They must have 
some platform ability as well as admin- 
istrative and executive power. 

The educational director is compar- 
atively a new officer in the Sunday 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 45 

school, made necessary because of the 
educational transformation of the 
school. The new superintendent, as we 
have noted, must be a business man, a 
man of executive ability. It is a rare 
thing to find marked executive ability 
and specialized educational training in 
the same person. The superintendent 
must be a man with educational ideals 
and convictions, but he will need a com- 
panion-in-labor to actualize these ideals. 
Both superintendent and educational 
director will find sufficient work in the 
average school to keep them busy. 

The educational director will be re- 
quired to institute a training depart- 
ment in the Sunday school, to see to it 
that real and resultful teaching is being 
done, to examine all curricula of study 
and select the best for his school, to ex- 
amine the pupils regularly — in brief, all 
of the specific educational interests of 
the school are his concern. In many 
places ministers should serve as educa- 
tional directors in their schools. All 



46 MAKING THE OLD 

ministers should be capable by training 
of filling such a position. The writer 
regards this office as perhaps the most 
important duty of his crowded pastoral 
life, the strategy of the formational 
period and the permanency of results 
remembered. 

The superintendent should be the 
supreme head of the Sunday school; 
the pastor his spiritual leader ; the secre- 
tary his statistical director; the educa- 
tional director his instruction manager ; 
the treasurer his finance organizer. 
Each of these must needs be a leader 
himself, with several helpers according 
to need. Never be afraid of creating 
too many offices. A good summary ad- 
ministrative rule would be: A man for 
each distinct task, each man under- 
standing clearly his field and keeping to 
it; all overhead men good leaders; all 
mediums having qualities for leading 
and following; all farthest hands with 
a disposition to obey orders to the mi- 
nutest detail ; a clear relay line from the 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 47 

last man to the first. The administra- 
tive tree is a nervous system, more of 
an organism than an organization, the 
superintendent, the head of the school, 
feeling the school's climate all the while 
through his conscientious lieutenants. 



48 MAKING THE OLD 



VIII 
TRAINING THE TEACHERS 

The proper time to train teachers is 
before they begin to teach. This is so 
not only that they may be prepared 
when they take up the work, but also 
because the psychological time for train- 
ing is past when one reaches twenty 
years of age. During the years from 
fifteen to twenty the service instinct 
comes to its zenith, and with it a deep 
desire to be prepared for service. These 
are the natural years of apprenticeship 
and vocation-preparation in every line: 
unless we select our Sunday school 
teachers before they are twenty years of 
age, and train them for true teaching, 
we are bound to have a hit-and-miss 
sort of teaching. 

" Where there is no vision the peo- 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 49 

pie perish." In no sphere is this more 
true than in the sphere of Sunday school 
activity. Except we idealize our school 
two or three years ahead, and begin now 
to make that ideal possible, we shall 
make no progress. Mere Sunday-to- 
Sunday work will never lift any school 
to a level of efficiency. If we had be- 
gun resolutely three years ago to build 
good schools and persisted unswerv- 
ingly, instead of planning for the next 
Sunday merely, we should have real 
schools now. No get -rich-quick method 
will suffice in religious educational 
work. 

From the pupils fifteen to twenty 
years of age, the upper Intermediate 
and Senior grades, all of the pupils 
with teaching promise should be selected 
and placed in a normal or training class. 
The committee of selection should con- 
sist of the teachers for those grades, the 
pastor of the church, the superintend- 
ent of the school and the educational 
director. Some of the qualities looked 



50 MAKING THE OLD 

for should be: Christian experience, 
leadership, love for children, interest in 
Sunday school work, the faculty of ex- 
pression. It would be well to have a 
personal talk with each young man and 
woman elected for training work, stat- 
ing the purpose of the committee, push- 
ing back the sky line of the pupil, and 
seeking to deepen interest and loyalty. 

This training class, or these training 
classes (according to the size of the 
school), will meet during the Sunday 
school session, an integral part of the 
regular school. The teacher for the 
training class must be very carefully 
selected — he is working for to-morrow, 
and his life and teaching will be mani- 
folded through the years. The qualities 
required in the prospective teachers 
should be his in ripened form. I think 
we can afford to rob the working staff 
at any point for a teacher here; this is 
the strategic center, the potential ful- 
crum of the future school and church. 
The pastor could not cast his bread 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 51 

upon more promising waters than right 
here. But he must not preach in this 
class. Here are young men and wom- 
en to be developed from within, not 
built up by external applications of 
eloquence. Many a training class has 
been smothered ; what is needed is light 
and air and exercise. Do not endeavor 
to cover so many pages in so much time ; 
seek expression, encourage thought, 
insist on thoroughgoing assimilation. 
We are not building houses for show, 
but training souls to find themselves in 
God so that they can charge other lives 
with the Life Wonderful. There is no 
greater business. 

For a curriculum of study for the 
training class consult the Advanced 
Standard Courses of the denomination. 
The best is none too good, students and 
purpose considered. 

Training is not fulfilled out of a text- 
book. Practice work, observation of the 
best classes and schools — these should 
be included in any schedule of training. 



52 MAKING THE OLD 

The practice work should be done under 
observation and kindly criticism, as in 
a State normal. Serving as assistant 
teacher for a time gives one confidence 
and a sense of the realness of the work. 
Observation work is good, and should 
be done with pencil and notebook, and 
discussed in class afterward. The visit 
of the class to a well-organized school 
will stiffen purpose and clarify ideals. 

On training of the present workers, 
see Chapter IX, " Sunday School 
Workers 5 Night." But let it be remem- 
bered that the training of future work- 
ers is the prophetic and the statesman- 
like thing. All training is greatly 
worth while and can scarcely be over- 
done. Correspondence courses are of 
immense value. However, if all Sun- 
day schools would institute training 
classes to-day right in their schools, to- 
morrow we would have plenty of teach- 
ers with clear aims and efficient methods. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 53 



IX 

SUNDAY SCHOOL WORKERS' 
NIGHT 

It is not too much to expect Sunday 
school teachers and officers to come to- 
gether once a week for training and con- 
ference work. The following has been 
the schedule for our Sunday School 
Workers' Night: Supper, 6:00 to 6:45; 
Department Conferences, 6:45 to 7:30; 
General Training Work, 7:30 to 8:15. 

The men, and the women who work, 
are requested to come directly from 
their work to the church for supper. 
The suppers are in charge of a commit- 
tee, which committee divides the women 
workers into groups of three, and as- 
signs to each group a night when they 
are to prepare the supper. Everything 
is purchased for the supper, nothing 



54 MAKING THE OLD 

donated or solicited: only the meat and 
vegetables are cooked at the church. 
The meal is a simple one, though sub- 
stantial enough to satisfy the men who 
work hard. We have discovered that 
an adequate meal can be furnished for 
fifteen cents apiece: each one adds a 
penny to pay the dishwasher. All the 
workers in the Sunday school are ex- 
pected to be present for supper, and, 
unless notice to the contrary is given 
well in advance to the chairman of the 
supper committee, a plate is set and the 
price expected. By similar notifica- 
tion any worker may bring a friend or 
another member of the family with 
him. 

The workers sit at table by depart- 
ments and matters of department inter- 
est are informally discussed while eat- 
ing. Promptly at 6:45 the workers 
retire to their respective department 
rooms for council work. The principals 
of the departments have charge of these 
councils. A definite program is worked 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 55 

out and the laws of unity and continuity 
observed in the work of any one season. 
Sometimes the principals use a text, 
such as Dr. Athearn's Church School, 
or the proper volume of The Worker 
and His Work series : again the courses 
suggested by the Sunday school maga- 
zines are followed: sometimes the 
Graded Work for the department fur- 
nishes the basis of study. The thing to 
be guarded against is drivel and aimless- 
ness. Everything depends upon the 
principal for a successful council. 

During the conference period the 
superintendent of the school meets his 
assistants and all general officers of the 
school. The administrative and execu- 
tive aspects of the work are clearly de- 
fined and thoroughly discussed. Each 
officer comes to know definitely what his 
specific task is, the policies of the school 
are clearly set forth, and the records 
and reports are examined and the weak 
places in the school sifted out for im- 
provement. The helpfulness of these 



56 MAKING THE OLD 

Cabinet meetings depends upon the 
superintendent. 

All of the workers come together at 
7:30. The pastor has charge of the 
general training work, and the funda- 
mentals of religious education make up 
the groundwork of study for this period. 
Before anyone can become a specialist 
in Sunday school work he must have the 
large view of unity and ultimate aim in 
religious education. The curriculum 
for this period over a number of seasons 
should include the following subjects 
at the very least: systematic Bible 
study, the psychology of the growing 
life, religious pedagogy, and educa- 
tional organization. The Advanced 
Standard Courses of the different de- 
nominations can very safely be followed 
in this general training work. Parents 
from the homes, earnest-minded young 
people in the school, and eager men and 
women of the congregation, will be glad 
to join this general class. Thus Sunday 
school sentiment will be spread and 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 57 

workers trained in advance. For one 
cannot pass through a hearty course in 
the methods and principles of Sunday 
school work without developing an ap- 
petite for Sunday school work. 



58 MAKING THE OLD 



X 

THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 
WORKERS' LIBRARY 

I hate found that it is not a difficult 
matter to secure to a church a good 
Sunday School Workers' Library. A 
"Book Shower" from the members of 
the church and congregation will be 
heartily indorsed and generously en- 
tered into. The way should be pre- 
pared by the arousal of interest in the 
latest and best methods of Sunday 
school work, and by the confident dec- 
laration that more safe and sane books 
on moral and religious education have 
been published in the last fifteen years 
than altogether before. Lists of these 
books should be prepared and mani- 
folded for congregation distribution. 
The specialists should be consulted for 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 59 

the books on these lists and their advice 
followed. After such lists have been 
distributed throughout the congrega- 
tion the members thereof should be 
given the privilege of marking the book 
which they would most like to see in a 
Workers' Library and which they 
would be willing to purchase. Second 
and third choices should be made so as 
to make duplications as few as possible. 
After the books have been purchased 
the donor's name should be written in 
each book ; he should have the first read 
of it, and then it should become the 
property of the church. 

It will always happen that some peo- 
ple will trust the judgment of the 
pastor, or one of the educational lead- 
ers, rather than their own in the choice 
of books. Such will simply give the 
money and allow others to make the 
selection. In this way books with dull 
titles, or books on unpopular, though 
very essential, themes can be purchased. 

The first purchase may not exceed 



60 MAKING THE OLD 

one hundred books; in a small church 
the number may be even fewer than this. 
But in any case the nucleus of a splen- 
did library can be formed. The sound- 
ness and quality of the books should al- 
ways be considered before the number. 
Well-meaning friends will wish to add 
volumes from their outworn library, but 
such an action should very seldom be 
allowed. 

A waiting list of books should always 
remain posted in plain sight of all 
churchgoers. As new books are written 
by the masters the names of these books 
should be added to the waiting list. 
The fact should be kept before the peo- 
ple that anyone may make a contribu- 
tion of any book on this waiting list at 
any time. In this way the library will 
grow and be kept up to date. 

The wise and efficient use of the vol- 
umes in the library is just as important 
as the selection and furnishing of them. 
To begin with, the library should be in a 
conspicuous and convenient place, both 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 61 

for contributors and Sunday school 
workers. It should be plainly labeled, 
"Sunday School Workers' Library." 
A librarian with a deep sense of the 
value of Sunday school work, and with 
a conviction of the possibility of self- 
training ; one who is fairly familiar with 
the contents of the books, or will work 
to make himself so, should be secured. 
The usual library rules should be in- 
sisted upon, or rules which will insure 
the greatest good to the greatest num- 
ber. The workers should be encouraged 
to draw books according to their depart- 
ment of work. In addition, books 
should be advised by the librarian, even 
handed out, according to the place and 
character of service. Furthermore, cer- 
tain sections and chapters should be 
pointed out as specially valuable. 
When a book is returned the librarian 
should test the reader's grasp of its es- 
sential elements by a few well-ordered 
questions. He may deepen the impres- 
sion made by the book, and enhance its 



62 MAKING THE OLD 

usefulness, by a few strong supple- 
mental remarks thereupon. A brief 
outline of the fundamentals of any book 
might be submitted in writing and such 
outline carefully examined and com- 
mented upon. An account should be 
kept with each worker as to how much 
he has read and how well he has assim- 
ilated what he has read. Such a record 
will prove of immense value in guiding 
to a choice of leaders for the school. 

Trained workers is the outstanding 
need of most church schools to-day. 
The local Workers' Library, efficiently 
handled, will help to make a seemingly 
impossible need an actual fact. Carlyle 
said, "The best university I know is a 
shelf of books." 

If it seems wise, and local conditions 
warrant, the Workers' Library can be 
made a Church Workers' Library, for 
workers in every department of the 
church, for trained workers are greatly 
needed everywhere. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 63 



XI 

REORGANIZING THE ADULT 
DEPARTMENT 

The Adult Department of the Sun- 
day school is still a comparatively new 
institution. A few years ago the only 
adults in the school of the church were 
the members of the administrative and 
teaching force, and, in some schools, a 
Bible class made up of the old saints 
who loved the church and who coveted 
an opportunity to argue or testify con- 
cerning the faith which was in them. 
But quite recently the church awak- 
ened to the following facts: the class 
meeting was dying out, adult Christians 
were disgracefully ignorant concerning 
the Bible, the Sunday school by its very 
genius could be made to minister to the 
fellowship and scriptural needs of men 



64 MAKING THE OLD 

and women. So adult classes in the 
Sunday school have been strongly advo- 
cated and enthusiastically promoted in 
the last few years. 

It may be that nothing else but the 
factors of enthusiasm and entertain- 
ment would have been sufficient to give 
adult Sunday school work advertising 
and momentum at the outset. How- 
ever that may be, it is certain that large 
classes and good times have been the 
outstanding characteristics of this 
Christian adult movement. The larg- 
est class in the world has been cited as 
the model class. It may be truthfully 
said also that in many cases the activ- 
ities have been of a selfish nature, oyster 
suppers, contests for membership and 
the like occupying the focus of atten- 
tion. 

The time has come for a change from 
mob devices and superficial methods to 
something more substantial. That the 
Adult Department is a department in 
a school must be granted, and because it 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 65 

is a part of a school it must conform to 
some educational principles. Not that 
there shall be less genuine enthusiasm 
and sociability, or less real service, but 
that there shall be more true teaching 
and training for service. 

To begin with, if at all possible, the 
adults should assemble by themselves 
for their "opening exercises": this is 
more in the interests of the remainder 
of the school than for the sake of the 
adults. In many cases the church audi- 
torium is the logical place of assembly 
for the adult classes of the Sunday 
school. The worship exercises should 
be brief; the adults should worship in 
the regular preaching services. Adults 
come to Sunday school for study pur- 
poses ; not for another worship hour. 

But the greatest changes in adult 
Sunday school work are coming along 
the line of smaller study groups and 
better courses of study. The large 
classes are being broken up ; the depart- 
ment is being graded. Many types of 



66 MAKING THE OLD 

men and women are to be found in 
every thriving Sunday school. Those 
with similar interests should be grouped 
together for study purposes. Age and 
vocation will be two of the bases of 
grading. Those in their twenties can- 
not profitably and agreeably study and 
fellowship with those over forty years of 
age; nor those over forty with those who 
are more than sixty. The unmarried, 
the newly-weds, and the long-married 
all represent widely divergent classes 
with varying needs and desires. Hand- 
workers and brain-workers do not usu- 
ally mingle together with ease and com- 
fort. A man's Sunday school class 
must be made up of men like himself if 
he is to feel at home, and he must feel 
at home to enter into the common life 
of the class. The department will pro- 
vide opportunity for the free play of the 
crowd psychology of the former great 
classes: but always the class must fur- 
nish the material to feed mind and heart. 
The Adult Department of any Sun- 






SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 67 

day school should aim to minister to all 
of the life-needs and all of the legiti- 
mate desires — social, intellectual, spir- 
itual — of every person in its constitu- 
ency, provided those needs are not sup- 
plied by some other wholesome agency 
in the community. So far as curricu- 
lum is concerned a comprehensive list of 
studies should be drawn up and sub- 
mitted to the members, and possible 
members, of the department. Every 
adult member in the church should be 
canvassed with a schedule of study and 
service opportunities. All courses must 
be freely elective, for we are now deal- 
ing with those of mature judgment. 
Given a properly diversified curriculum 
and an opportunity to elect the course 
of their choice, the adults will grade 
themselves. And many who are in the 
worship service of the church, but out 
of the Sunday school, and many in the 
community but away from the church 
altogether, will make their way into the 
educational department of the church 



68 MAKING THE OLD 

because there they can find their needs 
squarely met in a class after their own 
hearts and minds. 

The following are the classes and 
courses offered in the Adult Depart- 
ment of our Sunday school at present: 
A Young Man's Class, studying sec- 
ond-year Senior Graded Lessons; a 
companion Young Ladies' Class; a 
Homebuilders' Class, studying the 
Mother's Magazine and quarterly; a 
[Temperance Workers' Class, using as 
text "The Liquor Problem," by Nor- 
man E. Richardson; a Mission Study 
Class, alternating Home and Foreign 
texts; a Teacher Training Class, using 
the Advanced Standard Course; A So- 
cial Service Class, studying The Social 
Creed of the Churches, by Harry F. 
Ward; a Men's Brotherhood Class, a 
Woman's Organized Class, and a mixed 
class, all fellowship classes, studying the 
Uniform Lessons. We have found that 
the smaller group system, with free elec- 
tion of studies, works, making a more 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 69 

universal appeal, greatly increasing the 
enrollment of the department and the 
regularity of attendance, and in many 
ways securing constructive and per- 
manent results. 



70 MAKING THE OLD 



XII 

EMPHASIZING EXPRES- 
SIONAL LESSON WORK 

An earnest Sunday school teacher 
asked me this question not long since, 
"How can I get my pupils to do the 
lesson?" A very pertinent question! 
The old-time Sunday school teachers 
considered that teaching consisted of the 
teacher's talking or preaching. Teach- 
ing and preaching are radically differ- 
ent: teaching is getting a lesson into a 
pupil's life ; preaching is pouring a mes- 
sage out of a preacher. It is very sel- 
dom that a lesson can be talked into the 
mind of a student. It must be worked 
in by the pupil himself. Hands, feet, 
lips, heart, mind — very often all of these 
must be exercised before a lesson really 
becomes a part of the pupil's life. The 
lesson must be done or expressed. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 71 

Expressional work on the part of the 
pupil may be verbal, manual, or vital. 
Verbal expressional work is the easiest 
to secure in the Sunday school, and of 
great importance. It requires no mate- 
rial equipment, the pupils' minds and 
tongues are all. The former teacher 
was judged according to her fluency; 
the new Sunday school teacher is 
judged according to her ability to get 
her pupils to talk. When a pupil is sit- 
ting quietly you cannot be sure that he 
is listening and thinking on the lesson; 
when he is asking questions, or talking 
to the proposed point, you can be very 
sure he is thinking; and if he is thinking, 
the lesson is going home. Even the Be- 
ginners' and Primary children should be 
called upon to retell their stories: the 
Junior pupils should rehearse again 
and again the Bible facts which have 
been presented to them, for this is the 
drill and memory period of growing 
life: the teen-age students should have 
their minds so stirred by questions and 



72 MAKING THE OLD 

propositions which are vital to them, 
that they will just have to talk back. 
Let the teacher whose pupils put up a 
storm of questions and arguments on 
the subjects she has thrown out be 
greatly encouraged; let the teacher 
whose eloquence deluges the class study 
to be quiet, and study to stimulate to 
expression the sleeping minds of her 
pupils. 

The Graded Lessons recommend 
themselves above the Uniform Lessons 
because they are all paralleled with 
handwork. Handwork is pedagogical 
for the reason stated above — it gives the 
pupils opportunity to take a hand in 
the lessons. The magazine that has 
proven the greatest boon to parents and 
children alike in the last two or three 
years is Something to Do. This mag- 
azine is not a mere busy-work book for 
the children; it is an educator. Like- 
wise handwork in the Sunday school is 
a sound educational method. 

Many teachers are perplexed about 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 73 

getting the Graded Lesson handwork 
done as homework. Homework in con- 
nection with the Sunday school is some- 
thing new. This I will say, the hand- 
work should be done ; if it really cannot 
be done at home, have it done at Sunday 
school. You will never be more truly 
teaching than when your pupils are 
work on the lesson. However, it has 
been my experience that when parents 
have been visited by the teacher and 
their cooperation in homework prom- 
ised, and when the lesson fits the pupil's 
stage of life so as to become a real inter- 
est, no difficulty is experienced with 
homework. All homework should be 
carefully examined by the teacher and 
praise given where praise is due. Pub- 
lic exhibits of conscientious handwork 
should be held from time to time. The 
pupils are going to place the same esti- 
mate upon handwork as do teachers and 
parents. 

By vital expressional work I mean a 
reproducing of the lesson in actual life. 



74 MAKING THE OLD 

There has always been a subconscious 
feeling on the part of sincere Sunday 
school teachers that pupils should pass 
from the abstractions of the class room 
to the realities of life with the lesson of 
the day. I have known teachers who 
habitually took their pupils to visit the 
sick after Sunday school. The new 
Sunday school transcends the old in 
making provision for systematic, 
adapted, social service paralleling the 
lessons of the classroom. The Sunday 
school should stand in its community as 
a great benefactor, reaching out an hun- 
dred hands of blessing. These hands 
should be the hands of the pupils. No 
pupil, not even the youngest, should be 
missed in this community service priv- 
ilege. In connection with the mission- 
ary lessons, opportunities of world-wide 
service should be actually offered, such 
as educating a boy or girl in one of our 
mission schools, or supporting a native 
Christian worker in a foreign country. 
The home church, the immediate 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 75 

neighborhood, the larger municipality, 
the State, the entire home field, the 
world — all these have needs which grow- 
ing children can help to supply, but the 
objective need is no greater than the 
subjective, the need of the unfolding 
life to have a field of service in order 
that he may learn the full meaning of 
the abundant Christian life. We have 
a selfish church to-day, a church of help- 
less drones, because the Sunday schools 
of yesterday were confined to the im- 
pressional side of religious education. 
True religious education includes ex- 
pression, training for service, actual 
community and world service. 

In connection with this subject I 
would like to recommend the following 
books published by the University of 
Chicago Press : Handwork in Religious 
Education, by Addie Grace Wardle; 
Graded Social Service in the Sunday 
School, by William Norman Hutchins. 



76 MAKING THE OLD 



XIII 

SECURING DECISIONS FOR 
CHRIST 

Decision Day has been pretty much 
displaced by Declaration Day. Declar- 
ation Day is a day when those pupils 
who have decided to live Christian lives 
make open acknowledgment of that 
fact. It may be that on this day a few 
pupils will take the last step of Deci- 
sion, but, for the most part, only the 
public confession remains for this day. 

The whole school should not be 
massed for this day, only those twelve 
years of age and over. The year twelve 
is the psychological time of choice, gen- 
erally speaking. Of course there are 
variations from this rule because we are 
dealing with living souls, and these are 
never sure material for the scientist as 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 77 

physical things are. But the natural 
issue of personal choice may be looked 
for in the normal unfolding life just 
before the teen time. This is not differ- 
ent in the religious life from what hap- 
pens in other phases of the life of the 
awakening mind. The day when each 
soul will claim the title deed for his own 
life may be expected at any time near 
twelve. The Graded Lessons are pre- 
pared with a view to the great choice at 
the end of the Junior age. 

Children below twelve should not be 
admitted to a Decision or Declaration 
Day service, because God has not yet 
prepared them for such a time. Little 
children will answer to any Christian 
call because of their goodness, and be- 
cause others do it, but they are not 
choosing, just simply obeying and fol- 
lowing. Little children belong to 
Christ, but they are not moral Chris- 
tians because they cannot yet reflect on 
the good and the evil, compare moral 
issues, and intelligently make a choice. 



78 MAKING THE OLD 

Nearly all evangelists make tragic 
blunders here, staging moral dramas be- 
fore tender souls, attempting to force 
personal decisions before God's time, 
and retrenching future spiritual possi- 
bilities. 

It is true that some boys and girls 
have precocious religious experiences; 
they come to the Great Divide before 
twelve. But such are the exceptions 
and should be dealt with individually. 

All members of the school who are 
more than twelve years of age should be 
present on Decision or Declaration 
Day. It is to be hoped that most of 
them will have decided the great ques- 
tion, but it will confirm their own deci- 
sions to face the issue again. And those 
who passed the natural time of con- 
scious conversion (for I believe this age 
of twelve or thereabouts to be that), 
cannot have the issue put before them 
too strongly now; life is fast setting, 
and God must be given a place now or 
the chances are strong for a godless life. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 79 

The teachers are the logical and legit- 
imate evangelists of the Sunday school, 
each to the members of his own class. 
Why should Sunday school teachers 
forsake their posts or relinquish their 
rights when the objective of all their 
work slips into the focus? Here is the 
reason why every teacher should be a 
student of child psychology, in order 
that he may know how and when to take 
advantage of the developing instincts 
and the psychological moments. After 
the natural time of conversion has 
passed, each teacher should know posi- 
tively how many of his pupils are Chris- 
tians and how many are not. Those who 
are not Christians should be made the 
subjects of earnest prayer on the teach- 
er's part ; this prayer should be followed 
by personal work of a strong and defi- 
nite character. The class work should 
be distinctively religious, but the 
pointed, personal questions should be in 
private. Every teacher could lead 
every pupil to Christ at the proper time 



80 MAKING THE OLD 

if he would meet each pupil in some pri- 
vate place, preferably his home or the 
pupil's, and be honest, frank, and per- 
sistent. Then on Declaration Day the 
pupils will strengthen their case by a 
public acknowledgment of the fact that 
Christ has been accepted. 

Here is the highest kind of all-the- 
year-round evangelism. Not every les- 
son, even in the strategic years, should 
be specifically evangelistic or receive 
an evangelistic interpretation, but the 
teacher in these critical years must 
harbor an evangelistic spirit and be alert 
for every sign of spiritual awakening. 
To expect that on some certain day, De- 
cision Day, by some magnetic and con- 
tagious performance an evangelistic at- 
mosphere conducive to easy decision for 
Christ can be generated is to defy God's 
laws and cut off effect from cause. A 
professional revivalist has no business in 
a Sunday school. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 81 



XIV 

MAKING THE SUNDAY 

SCHOOL THE CHURCH 

SCHOOL 

The Sunday school of the last gen- 
eration had little more than a wooden 
connection with the church ; it convened 
in the same building as the adult wor- 
shipers, sometimes in the same room. 
The early Sunday school, instituted by 
Robert Raikes in 1780 in England, did 
not have even this place connection. 
From the beginning the church in 
America loosely adopted the Sunday 
school, but American churches have 
yet to learn that the Sunday school is an 
integral part of the church, with just 
as much right to be called "the church" 
as any other assemblage of people in the 
building, or any other branch of this 
Christian organism. 

Just what, in reality, is the church in 



82 MAKING THE OLD 

any local community? We are not 
speaking of the building but of the or- 
ganization of people which meets in the 
church building. Is it not true that we 
are accustomed to think of the adults 
assembled for worship in the preach- 
ing service as the church? Father and 
mother go to church ; the children go to 
Sunday school. Is it any wonder that 
the children grow up with the impres- 
sion that they are not connected in any 
way with the real church, that they are 
only temporarily connected with a 
school that meets on the same day and 
in the same building as the church? Is 
it any wonder that the Sunday school 
exit is outdoors rather than into the 
preaching service? Is it any wonder 
that young men and women have only 
a Sunday school bond to break when 
they leave Sunday school? The church 
leaders have not conceived the Sunday 
school as an organic part of the church ; 
and children inevitably inherit the con- 
ceptions of their seniors. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 83 

The truth of the matter is that no de- 
partment of the church is the entire 
church; or it might be nearer to the 
point to say that every department is 
the church. Very generally speaking, 
the functions and departments of the 
church may be divided into three 
classes: the inspirational — worship, or 
preaching service; the expressional — 
active or serving department (Ladies' 
Aid, Missionary Societies, etc.) ; and 
the educational, or school department. 
Just as well call the trunk of the tree, 
the tree, and the root and the branches 
something else, as to call the worship 
service of the church the church, and the 
educational and expressional depart- 
ments something else. In my judg- 
ment the child on his way to the so- 
called Sunday school is on his way to 
church just as much as his parents are 
going to church when preparing for the 
preaching service. In the newer and 
truer sense the school is the church at 
study upon the Word of God. 



84 MAKING THE OLD 

The name Sunday school should be 
changed to "Church school." Some 
leading religious educators have already 
adopted this term and all church people, 
in the interests of truth and economy, 
should speedily follow. You may say, 
"What's in a name?" I reply, "Very 
much to the growing mind hearing 
names and forming notions for the first 
time." 

The term "Sunday school" makes the 
day of meeting the essential thing; the 
day of meeting is but an incident. The 
essential idea is that here is a great 
mother institution, the church, with 
many arms of blessing, and one, the arm 
of religious educational provision, and 
when the child is enfolded there he is 
already in the bosom of mother church. 
As he develops and so desires, he may 
be encircled by other arms of this great 
mother, and accept new vows and obli- 
gations, but from the time he feels the 
first embrace of the church (it may be 
as a member of the Cradle Roll Depart- 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 85 

merit of the Sunday school) , he is in the 
church, even as a son in the family, bear- 
ing the family name to his own pride 
and honor. A little girl of the Begin- 
ners' Department of a Church school, 
passing the church building where she 
went on Sundays to that Beginners' 
Department, remarked, "That is my 
church." She was right, and officials 
would do well to give the educational 
department of the church the family 
name. 

The governing board of each local 
church should regard the school of the 
church as its special ward. From this 
department come the heavy gains : here 
lies the hope of the future church. I 
know of one church where no one may 
sit on the official board unless he is reg- 
ularly and actively engaged in the 
school of the church. Small likelihood 
of this board overlooking the interests 
of the educational department of the 
church, as is often done in churches 
where the board consists of the gran- 



86 MAKING THE OLD 

diose trustees, who must protect the 
building; and the honorable stewards, 
who must collect the pastor's salary — 
all of which pillars in the church could 
never think of stooping to work in the 
Sunday school. Know they not that the 
church school is the fountain-head of the 
church's life? Without the school to- 
day we'll need no church buildings to- 
morrow, and the call to the ministry will 
be forever silenced. 

In our local church we have but one 
budget. The same envelopes will be 
used by the membership of both instruc- 
tional and worship services, double en- 
velopes to be deposited at either service, 
or in both, for those who desire to give. 
The pupils of the school have a part in 
the finance system, and in the great 
benevolent enterprises of the church. 
They do not give for themselves as 
formerly, but are trained in the funda- 
mental principle of Christian giving, 
that of giving for Kingdom purposes. 
In turn the needs of the school are well 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 87 

taken care of from this general treasury. 
I suppose the school more than pays for 
itself, but that question does not enter 
into the plan. The conviction is that the 
mother should provide for the child of 
the family, and that the child should be 
trained in unselfish giving. A common 
budget system in all local churches 
would aid in transforming the Sunday 
school into a church school. 

A word here on the attendance of the 
children upon the preaching services 
might not be out of place. The 
preacher has no greater problem. His 
heart is troubled because the young peo- 
ple of the school will not remain for the 
preaching service. From the beginning 
of the habit-forming time, the Junior 
period, the children should be in the 
distinctively worship service. But they 
are not, and because they are not we are 
sowing for a future of nonchurchgoers. 
Where's the remedy? I believe, as has 
been argued here, if young people are 
made to feel that the whole church is 



88 MAKING THE OLD 

theirs, they would more often attend the 
preaching service. The new concep- 
tion, giving rise to the new habit, cannot 
be inculcated in a day; but if adults 
would only get the idea of the church as 
"one body with many members," the 
school of the church an integral part of 
the church ; if they would talk it and live 
it, the young people would soon take 
them at their word and claim their in- 
heritance. 

Of course the preaching service must 
minister to the interests of young people 
to hold them. It is unreasonable to ex- 
pect anyone to continue a performance 
that means nothing to him merely for 
the sake of tradition or habit formation; 
much less can this be done with young 
people. The challenge is up to the 
preachers for the most part. Some of 
these preachers are bewailing the dearth 
of young people in their audiences when 
their sermons are "obsessed with adult- 
ism." I believe it is truly possible to 
conduct a worship service so that all 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 89 

from the Junior period to the octoge- 
narian class can be interested and edi- 
fied. It will not mean a change of sub- 
ject-matter so much as a change of spirit 
and presentation. Give the young peo- 
ple an active part in the service : draw 
illustrations from their fields. Ritual 
. and ceremony make a strong appeal to 
young people. I know a boy who asks 
every Sunday morning if it is Lord's 
Supper Sunday; if it is, he wants to at- 
tend ; if not, he does not care to go. Let 
the minister call back his own interests 
during these periods, let him study 
books on the characteristics of the un- 
folding life, let him mingle with young 
people during the week in real comrade 
fashion, and he will learn to be a "young 
folk's preacher." And withal he will 
discover that his adult hearers will ap- 
preciate the freshness and thrill of his 
sermons as never before. 

Combination services, where the in- 
struction period and the preaching serv- 
ice merge in a half hour of common wor- 



90 MAKING THE OLD 

ship between the two, seem to me to be 
wrong in principle ; and if so, such serv- 
ice can never be permanently successful. 
It is a scheme, and you cannot continue 
to secure favorable reactions from the 
hearts of young people when you resort 
to schemes. Likewise I am doubtful 
about the wisdom and value of the so- 
called "Junior church" — a separate in- 
spirational service for children from 
nine to twelve. Will it develop an ap- 
petite for the regular preaching service ? 
I think not. The gap from a Junior 
church to the main worship service is 
just as difficult to span as that from the 
church school to the worship service. 

The ideal plan is to expect young 
people from the age of nine — the time 
when habit-formation for life really sets 
in — to attend the regular preaching 
services; to make this the natural, nor- 
mal, and habitual practice, by adults 
really believing it and never making any 
contrary suggestions to the young 
folks; to make the children feel that 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 91 

they are a part of a great unitary func- 
tionalized institution, and that by virtue 
of age and development they will come 
to deeper privileges and rights in this 
their church home; to make every 
preaching service one of interest and in- 
spiration to young folks by effecting a 
sure point of contact with their actual 
lives, and by giving them a significant 
part in the regular activities. All this is 
possible to that church and to that min- 
ister who believes it enough to make it 
so. The good old custom of the family 
pew in church cannot be improved upon ; 
the ponderous adultism and the droning 
supernaturalism of some of the services 
of those other days can be greatly im- 
proved upon. If we cannot have the 
family pew to-day, let us have the class 
pew, in which a class from the instruc- 
tional service of the church sits with its 
teacher. Make the Sunday school the 
church school and you will endow the 
young people with all the privileges and 
responsibilities of the church entire, 



92 MAKING THE OLD 

privileges and responsibilities which 
they will answer to as their capacities 
unfold. Young people have too fine a 
sensibility, and too much good sense, to 
be thrust into a traditionally exclusive 
meeting, theoretically and actually con- 
sidered as distinct from their special as- 
sembly, the school, and staging a pro- 
gram, not only over their heads, but also 
quite foreign to their lives. But if they 
have received their title deed to the 
whole wealth of the church's provision 
when they enter the school of the church, 
they will march boldly forward through 
all her departments as those having 
property rights. 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 93 



XV 

SUPPLEMENTING THE SUN- 
DAY INSTRUCTION 

(The Gary Plan) 

No sincere Sunday school teacher has 
ever had time for the lesson. Thirty 
minutes' time goes so rapidly for the 
teacher who is prepared and interested 
that she finds herself at the end of the 
study period with more lesson material 
untouched than she has covered. And 
she will never have the opportunity of 
presenting this subject-matter again, 
nor any subject-matter for seven whole 
days, and then again only for a brief 
half hour (and this may be cut down by 
special-day exercises, or by department 
business or by a visiting speech-maker) . 
Thirty hours per week for study at the 
public school: thirty minutes at the Sun- 



94 MAKING THE OLD 

day school — the despair of conscientious 
Sunday school teachers everywhere is 
this pittance of time for lesson presenta- 
tion. 

The question is, How can this in- 
struction time be increased? It might 
be somewhat lengthened on Sunday; 
indeed, in many schools where educa- 
tional methods are being adopted, it is 
being lengthened. The Sunday school 
period lasts an hour and a half instead 
of one hour, as formerly, beginning ear- 
lier or lasting longer according to the 
time of the preaching service. Where 
the entire Sunday school program has 
to be crowded into one hour, less time 
is being taken for general exercises and 
more time for class study. This is as 
it should be, for, while all parts of the 
religious educational program are im- 
portant, that which the pupils learn of 
God's Word is what is going to stay by 
them through the years, building them 
up in the Christian life and fortifying 
them against temptation. When the 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 95 

Master was under the strain of tempta- 
tion he quoted Scripture. Make the 
study-period just as long as possible in 
Sunday school. 

But even with the study time 
stretched to the limit on Sunday it is 
still quite insufficient. Some churches 
have required the children's time after 
the public school day or on Saturday; 
some churches, more voluntary than the 
above, have requested such time. The 
churches of authority have done pretty 
well with this plan in past generations ; 
it is not working so satisfactorily to- 
day: the American youth wants liberty 
in this generation. It is not difficult to 
get a class of boys or girls together for 
social or recreational purposes. It is a 
hard matter to assemble them between 
Sundays, out of public school hours, for 
Bible study work. Some teachers suc- 
ceed in getting their pupils together 
for handwork in connection with the 
Graded Lessons, and this practice 
should be encouraged. However, what 



96 MAKING THE OLD 

is being done in this way is nothing more 
than a drop in the bucket, and there is 
little hope of teachers taking enough 
real and permanent interest to make 
this kind of between- Sunday work 
count for much. 

I believe the church must have a frac- 
tion of the public school time if it is go- 
ing to succeed in making its valuable 
contribution to the education of the 
American children. Further I believe 
the State is more willing than we think 
to grant to the church a small portion of 
time. The public, parents in particular, 
are beginning to feel that more time 
should be devoted to religious education, 
and that the children should be assem- 
bled for this purpose when they are 
fresh and up to the mark. The com- 
mon judgment now is that religion (we 
are not speaking of Bible history and 
Bible literature) cannot ever be taught 
in our public schools — we are too di- 
verse in creeds for that, and creeds sink 
deep. The American people have come 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 97 

to feel that the task of religious educa- 
tion is up to the churches, and that they 
ought to be given a fair chance to do 
their part. 

A year ago the ministers of our town 
requested the local Board of Education 
to grant to each pupil the privilege of 
coming to the church of his or his par- 
ents' choice, for one hour each week for 
religious instruction. Petitions to this 
end were circulated through the several 
churches and almost unanimously 
signed. These petitions were put be- 
fore the Board of Education, promptly 
honored, and the requested favor 
granted. The churches made prepara- 
tion, by adding some equipment and 
engaging teachers, for conducting real 
schools in the churches. The pupils 
came in two shifts on Wednesday after- 
noons. Curricula of study were care- 
fully worked out: these consisted of the 
expressional work of the Graded Les- 
sons of the previous Sunday, of church 
and denominational history, and of 



98 MAKING THE OLD 

memory work of Scripture, hymns, and 
prayers. The results were very gratify- 
ing in every way: the pupils worked 
hard; the parents were amazed and 
pleased at the religious progress of their 
children; the town improved noticeably 
in atmosphere and attitude. 

This year the three schools of the 
town are all Garyized, having shops, 
domestic science training, playground 
directors, etc. We still have our church 
schools, but our attendance is somewhat 
diminished because the pupils have to 
make the choice, in some instances, be- 
tween the playground or the industrial 
department, and the church school. 
And boys are still boys and girls girls. 

The ideal arrangement for a midweek 
church school is in conjunction with the 
traditional public school, where the 
choice is between the church school and 
supplemental work (not an integral 
part of the regular course) in the pub- 
lic school; of course the constitution of 
our country will not permit of the public 



SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW 99 

school authorities requiring any pupil to 
attend church school. But under any 
fair system the church school will be 
gratefully patronized; parents do not 
want the moral and religious interests 
of their children to suffer, no matter 
how negligent of these matters they 
themselves are. 

Our midweek church school is under 
the same management as is our school 
on Sunday. The superintendent super- 
vises the work of both; the educational 
director looks after the teachers and the 
courses of study; a principal is elected 
for this department of the religious ed- 
ucational work in the same way that a 
principal is elected for the Junior De- 
partment of the Sunday school. In the 
interests of economy and efficiency the 
policy of any church should be to keep 
all educational phases of the work under 
one central management. 

It is not too much to expect that our 
children be granted at least one fresh 
hour per week for religious education; 



THE OLD SCHOOL NEW 

nor is it too much to expect the church 
to make provision for the most profit- 
able use of this hour. I believe this to be 
the only solution for the problem of the 
lack of time for adequate religious 
instruction. Denominational boards 
should be consulted for courses of study 
and plans of organization. 



100 






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